How to Sync Airbnb & Booking.com Calendars to Avoid Double Bookings

As vacation rental owners, the more points of contact you have, the more visibility you gain and the greater the chances of your property being booked. But how can you sync your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars to reduce manual updates and avoid double bookings? Discover the options in this article!

Why Airbnb and Booking.com are essential for vacation rentals

Due to their national and international reputation, these two platforms are trusted by both travelers and owners. Airbnb and Booking.com are essential booking platforms for many owners and managers to promote their rentals.

But once your rental listings are published on these two sites, how can you ensure that your calendars are synchronized as efficiently as possible?

How to sync your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars (and avoid double bookings)

This is a question many short-term rental owners and managers ask themselves. Good news, you've come to the right place to find not one, but two answers!

Option 1: Manually sync your booking calendars via iCal

To update your booking calendars on Booking.com and Airbnb, you can manually block your calendars yourself by logging into Booking.com if you have an Airbnb booking on known dates and vice versa.

These two rental platforms offer you the possibility of manually updating the availability of your short-term rental by logging into the said sites.

In practice, it happens as follows.

1. On each rental site, the calendar is accompanied by an iCal link.
2. You will need to retrieve the iCal link from each booking platform
3. Then, paste it into the interface of the other platform (in our case, Airbnb and Booking.com).

This manual method has its limits:

• Responsiveness. As soon as you receive a booking on one platform or another, you will need to quickly log in to the other to block your calendar to avoid double bookings. This requires you to remain ultra-available, including evenings and weekends.
• Time. Manual updates take time. This time could be invested elsewhere, such as in your guest experience or hospitality.
• Stress. Checking your emails or smartphone notifications regularly can be stressful and time-consuming.
• Manual error. By manually moving your blocked dates, you may inadvertently block the wrong dates. This could cause problems.
• Difficulty growing your business. Manually managing your short-term rental business will hold you back if you want to take it to the next level.

Option 2: Automatic synchronization of your calendars with a Channel Manager

To ensure efficient management of your short-term rental, you can use a Channel Manager like Smoobu to ensure real-time calendar synchronization.

Channel Managers for vacation rentals enable you to connect your calendars, ensuring automatic and real-time updates when they offer an API connection with Airbnb and Booking.com.

The advantages of a Channel Manager like Smoobu

Using a Channel Manager gives you several advantages:

• Automatic calendar synchronization and real-time updates. No more double bookings!
• Shared calendar information: You can now avoid missing reservations and simplify your daily management by consolidating all your reservation information in a central dashboard.
• No more stress! Free your mind and focus on other aspects of your business!
• Easy growth you can manage: 1, 3, 5, 10, or more properties.

In addition to ensuring automatic synchronization, Channel Manager for vacation rentals is often found within a comprehensive short-term rental management software. This enables you to centralize all your operations from a single, centralized dashboard.

Go further and discover seven reasons to use a Channel Manager.

How to choose the right Channel Manager for vacation rentals

Selecting a high-performance Channel Manager to support your vacation rental business can be complicated at first, as several key factors need to be considered, including price, features, ease of use, and more.

Discover in our complete guide "Best Channel Managers 2025" all the criteria to take into account to choose the best Channel Manager for seasonal rentals, facilitate your management of booking calendars, and avoid double bookings.

Smoobu, a trusted Airbnb partner

Each year, Airbnb recognizes a select group of top-performing connectivity partners through its Preferred Software Partner program. This recognition acknowledges software providers that meet and exceed Airbnb's rigorous technical, performance, and quality standards.

Since 2018, Smoobu has been a Preferred Software Partner of Airbnb, and again in 2025.

Smoobu, a trusted partner of Booking.com

Each year, Booking.com designates its Premier Partners, who hold the highest level of recognition in the program, for their continued innovation, successful collaboration with Booking.com, and their ability to deliver an exceptional experience to accommodation guests.

Since 2018, Smoobu has been a Premier Connectivity Partner of Booking.com, and again in 2025.

Why is voiding double bookings essential

Double bookings are the bane of owners, and for several reasons:

• They damage your reputation as a host
• They may result in penalties from the platforms and/or loss of status.
• They can cost you dearly if you have to re-host your guests.
• They create a negative experience for travelers

A sound automatic synchronization system will allow you to strive for operational excellence in your business.

Providing all your points of contact with an up-to-date calendar that only shows your available dates will save you a lot of headaches and stress.

Create a profitable, professional, and peaceful business with Smoobu

Smoobu's vacation rental management software is the backbone of your business! In addition to connecting your various platforms and ensuring real-time calendar updates for your convenience and the happiness of your guests, optimize and simplify your guest communication and daily operations with Smoobu!

Discover how thousands of hosts sync their calendars, avoid double bookings, and save time every day—without a credit card or commitment. Try Smoobu free for 14 days.